BACKGROUND The association between human papillomavirus (HPV) types and oral lesions has been shown in many studies. Considering the significance that HPV has in the development of malignant and potentially malignant disorders of the oral mucosa, the purpose of this study was to investigate the prevalence of HPV DNA in different oral lesions. In addition, we wanted to elucidate whether the HPV ...

Human B lymphocytes activated by pokeweed mitogen (PWM) undergo a proliferative response, differentiate into immunoglobulin producing cells (IPC), and release immunoglobulin into the supernatant fluid of the lymphocyte cultures. Since the number of IPC and amount of immunoglobulin produced may be determined in part by the proportions of T and non-T lymphocytes in the culture, studies were under...

PURPOSE Recent studies showed that immunological mechanisms were involved in the pathogenesis of diabetic retinopathy (DR). T-helper (Th) cells play an important role in chronic inflammatory disorders and autoimmune diseases. Whether Th cells participate in the pathogenesis of DR remains unclear. METHODS To evaluate the role of Th cells in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes mellitus with ret...

Ocular diseases such as proliferative diabetic retinopathy are the major cause of blindness in industrialized countries. The main pathologic features of these diseases are hypoxia and overproduction of growth factors resulting in pathologic proliferation of endothelial cells and new vessel formation. Particularly, hypoxia and growth factors, such as VEGF, IGF-1, bFGF and TGF beta(2), show a com...

Endometriosis is a common monoclonal benign proliferative disorder that may give rise to pelvic malignancy. Epithelial ovarian carcinoma is responsible for a large proportion of gynaecological cancer-associated deaths. Early diagnosis is difficult and screening is generally unsuccessful. Knowledge of the risk factors for the development of endometriosis and progression to malignancy may assist ...

For decades, low- and moderate-dose radiation therapy (RT) has been shown to exert a beneficial therapeutic effect in a multitude of non-malignant conditions including painful degenerative muscoloskeletal and hyperproliferative disorders. Dupuytren and Ledderhose diseases are benign fibroproliferative diseases of the hand/foot with fibrotic nodules and fascial cords, which determine debilitatin...

Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) is an unusual serine/threonine kinase that controls many neuronal functions, including neurite outgrowth, synapse formation, neurotransmission, and neurogenesis. It mediates these functions by phosphorylating a wide range of substrates involved in gene transcription, metabolism, apoptosis, cytoskeletal dynamics, signal transduction, lipid membrane dynamics, and...

PURPOSE The high-mobility group box -1 (HMGB1)/receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE)/osteopontin (OPN)/early growth response-1 (Egr-1) pathway is involved in inflammation, angiogenesis, and fibrosis. We investigated the expression of the components of this pathway in proliferative diabetic retinopathy (PDR) and proliferative vitreoretinopathy (PVR) epiretinal membranes. METHODS ...

Characterization of the cell cycle has introduced CDKs and other proteins as possible targets for inhibition of cell proliferation, such as, CDK1 and CDK2, whose inhibition may be useful in the treatment of proliferative disorders. Structure-activity analyses have been instrumental in the design and discovery of potent CDK inhibitors, such as purine analogs, which have increased in potency from...

The World Health Organization (WHO) classification of hematopoietic neoplasms, published in 2001, included the new category of “Myelodysplastic/ Myeloproliferative Diseases,” intended to accommodate those myeloid neoplasms that simultaneously showed features of chronic myeloproliferative disorders and myelodysplastic syndromes. Typically, myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are clonal neoplastic di...